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Monday, January 25, 2016

The extended Lower Mainland Networks of Inquiry and Innovation and Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network schools will be meeting later this week.Please see the time/location details below.Please feel free to bring friends or colleagues from other schools – everyone is welcome! So we know how many people to expect, please RSVP to Donna Weaving at dweaving@dccnet.com.

If you are in another region of the province and wondering when/where local schools in your area may be getting together, please contact us.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Network schools are now fully engaged in their NOII and AESN inquiries, collaborating across roles and schools to improve teaching and learning in their districts. Please take a few moments to scan through the list of topics and foci for this school year so you can see the breadth of learning taking place across the province, as well as potentially connect with another school and/or district working on similar learning goals. There are three lists of inquiry topics to explore:

Aboriginal Impact Study
Secondary schools focused on student transitions. These schools are also engaged in a research study looking at the impact of their inquiry work.

Network of Inquiry and Innovation
Schools focused on a variety of topics linked to specific school needs. For example, self-regulated learning, the new curriculum, student engagement, math, co-teaching and collaboration, etc.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Several members from the Network attended the International Congress for School Effectivenessand Improvement (ICSEI) conference this past week in Glasgow, sharing BC stories and learning from school teams from around the world. If you missed it, you can catch the keynotes and presentations here (more will be added soon). Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, currently a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, also shared his presentation here – check out slide 10 to see how Canada is faring with regard to equity and student achievement). In January 2017, ICSEI will be in Ottawa – start planning now!

Also, a quick update on the partnership work in the UK with the Whole Education Network.Many of you know that the Spirals of Inquiry is being piloted with cohorts of schools in the UK, with a research team following progress and working on a report. We’ll share the full report when available, but for now, here are a couple of quotes from their experience:

Seriously engaging with Spirals of Enquiry is difficult work, at least initially, because it is a new way of doing things. It requires organising, good questioning skills, a willingness to seriously listen and have your thinking challenged. And sometimes the scanning response elicits painful responses from children and young people which are hard to hear.

I’ve loved doing the process and just the fact that you are making the kids the centre of it has been the absolute key to figuring out what we should do next. We’ve already started thinking about how we might adapt it and change it, so we will definitely be using this again

Judy and Linda, in partnership with Whole Education, launched a new cohort of UK schools back in November and you’ll find some notes and feedback from that session here.

Within the next week we’ll have our website updated with how BC schools are focusing their inquiries this school year – more to come…